Just like the garage computer explosion of the 70’s through the 80’s, which brought us such things as Apple, pong, Bill Gate’s hair, and the proliferation of personal computers, the maker movement is the new garage hardware explosion. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement.
Enthusiasts who want to build the products they want, from shortwave radios to personal computers, and to tweak products they’ve bought to make them even better, have long been a part of the electronics industry. By all measures, garage-style innovation remains alive and well today, as “makers” as they are called continue to turn out contemporary gadgets, including 3D printers, drones, and embedded electronics devices.
Making is about individual Do-It-Yourselfers being able to design and create with tools that were, as of a decade or two ago, only available to large, cash-rich corporations: CAD tools, CNC mills, 3D printers, low-quantity PCB manufacturing, open hardware such as Arduinos and similar inexpensive development boards – all items that have made it easier and relatively cheap to make whatever we imagine. For individuals, maker tools can change how someone views their home or their hobbies. The world is ours to make. Humans are genetically wired to be makers. The maker movement is simply the result of making powerful building and communication tools accessible to the masses. There are plenty of projects from makers that show good engineering: Take this Arduino board with tremendous potential, developed by a young maker, as example.
The maker movement is a catalyst to democratize entrepreneurship as these do-it-yourself electronics are proving to be hot sellers: In the past year, unit sales for 3D printing related products; Arduino units, parts and supplies; Raspberry Pi boards; drones and quadcopters; and robotics goods are all on a growth curve in terms of eBay sales. There are many Kickstarter maker projects going on. The Pebble E-Paper Watch raises $10 million. The LIFX smartphone-controlled LED bulb raises $1.3 million. What do these products have in common? They both secured funding through Kickstarter, a crowd-funding website that is changing the game for entrepreneurs. Both products were created by makers who seek to commercialize their inventions. These “startup makers” iterate on prototypes with high-end tools at professional makerspaces.
For companies to remain competitive, they need to embrace the maker movement or leave themselves open for disruption. Researchers found that 96 percent of business leaders believe new technologies have forever changed the rules of business by democratizing information and rewiring customer expectations. - You’ve got to figure out agile innovation. Maybe history is repeating itself as the types of products being sold reminded us of the computer tinkering that used to be happening in the 1970s to 1990s – similar in terms of demographics, tending to be young people, and low budget. Now the do-it-yourself category is deeply intertwined with the electronics industry. Open hardware is in the center in maker movement – we need open hardware designs! How can you publish your designs and still do business with it? Open source ecosystem markets behave differently and therefore require a very different playbook than traditional tech company: the differentiation is not in the technology you build; it is in the process and expertise that you slowly amass over an extended period of time.
By democratizing the product development process, helping these developments get to market, and transforming the way we educate the next generation of innovators, we will usher in the next industrial revolution. The world is ours to make. Earlier the PC created a new generation of software developers who could innovate in the digital world without the limitations of the physical world (virtually no marginal cost, software has become the great equalizer for innovation. Now advances in 3D printing and low-cost microcontrollers as well as the ubiquity of advanced sensors are enabling makers to bridge software with the physical world. Furthermore, the proliferation of wireless connectivity and cloud computing is helping makers contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT). We’re even beginning to see maker designs and devices entering those markets once thought to be off-limits, like medical.
Image source: The world is ours to make: The impact of the maker movement – EDN Magazine
In fact, many parents have engaged in the maker movement with their kids because they know that the education system is not adequately preparing their children for the 21st century. There is a strong movement to spread this DIY idea widely. The Maker Faire, which launched in the Bay Area in California in 2006, underlined the popularity of the movement by drawing a record 215,000 people combined in the Bay Area and New York events in 2014. There’s Maker Media, MakerCon, MakerShed, Make: magazine and 131 Maker Faire events that take place throughout the world. Now the founders of all these Makers want a way to connect what they refer to as the “maker movement” online. So Maker Media created a social network called MakerSpace, a Facebook-like social network that connects participants of Maker Faire in one online community. The new site will allow participants of the event to display their work online. There are many other similar sites that allow yout to present yout work fron Hackaday to your own blog. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement—although makers can be found everywhere in the world.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Making A Book Reader That Can Survive Kindergarten
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/04/hackaday-prize-entry-making-a-book-reader-that-can-survive-kindergarten/
[atomicthomas] is a dedicated teacher. One only has to look at the work he’s been putting into book readers for for the past sixteen years. With hardware like the Pi Zero threatening cheap computers just over the supply chain horizon, he’s begun to set his sights higher.
It all started with headphones and audio tapes. For all of us who got to use tapes and school headphones, we know the flaws with this plan. Nothing lasted the sticky and violent hands of children for long. When video recordings of book became available, DVD players suffered similar fates.
Making books accessible to all kids
https://hackaday.io/project/15239-making-books-accessible-to-all-kids
This project creates an easily accessible digital library of animated books, empowering all children to independently explore reading.
Think of it as video game console, except it plays books that have been turned into movies. The Raspberry Pi w/ KODI, hard drive, and controller are all housed in a $5 dollar Ikea box. This box is not connected to the internet, so all books were put on a small hard drive. I drilled holes for the buttons and used zip ties to attach everything. I heavily modified KODI to make it kid proof. It is cheap and easy to build and can connect to any HDMI TV or monitor. I found hundreds of Caldecott awarded books made into movies and converted them into mp4s. Kids can preview or review over 300 books that we will be reading in class during the year. This console makes hundreds of books accessible to kids with a wide variety of learning disabilities. Going forward, I’d like to try to make this project cheaper and smaller by installing a Pi Zero into a NES controller.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: $50 Foot Controlled Mouse
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/06/hackaday-prize-entry-50-foot-controlled-mouse/
one day [C. Niggel] noted that the relative’s new electric wheelchair was foot controlled. Could this be adapted to a computer mouse?
He looked up commercial solutions and found them not only prohibitively expensive, but also fraught with proprietary drivers and all sorts of bad design nonsense. With all of the tools out there today there was no reason this couldn’t be quickly prototyped and sent to the relative in need.
He used a combination of conductive thread, neoprene, and velostat to build the pads themselves. The pads were balanced with some adjusting resistors in series. The signals are sent to an Adafruit Feather board which interprets them and converts it to a PS/2 standard.
$50 Foot Controlled Mouse
https://hackaday.io/project/13349-50-foot-controlled-mouse
Reimagining expensive commercial accessibility solutions with new prototyping materials
Commercial solutions, where available, are over $600, and may require special drivers or knowledge. With prototyping technologies available now, including piezo-resistive fabrics and HID-emulating programmable boards, developing a solution at a much lower price point seemed fairly easy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Design Oscilloscope Could be (Almost) Free
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/06/open-design-oscilloscope-could-be-almost-free/
If you could only own one piece of test equipment, it should probably be an oscilloscope. Then again, modern scopes often have multiple functions, so maybe that’s not a fair assertion. A case in point is the Scopefun open hardware project. The device is a capable 2-channel scope, a logic analyzer and also a waveform and pattern generator. The control GUI can work with Windows, Linux, or the Mac
The hardware uses a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA. A GUI uses a Cypress’s EZ-USB FX2LP chip to send configuration data to the FPGA. Both oscilloscope channels are protected for overvoltage up to +/- 50 V. The FPGA samples at 100 Mhz through a 10-bit dual analog-to-digital converter ( ADC ). The FPGA handles triggering and buffers the input before sending the data to the host computer via the USB chip. Each channel has a 10,000 sample buffer.
A 16-bit digital interface can be set as inputs or outputs. The FPGA samples inputs at 100 MHz.
ScopeFun – Open Source Oscilloscope
http://www.scopefun.com/
Specifications
100 Mhz Real-Time Sampling rate / 3.2 Ghz Equivalent-Time Sampling rate
2 analog oscilloscope channels (10-bit)
2 analog generators (12-bit)
16 digital channels (logic analyzer / pattern generator)
USB 2.0 interface
Tomi Engdahl says:
Certification For Open Source Hardware Announced
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/07/certification-for-open-source-hardware-anounced/
oday at the Open Hardware Summit in Portland, Alicia Gibb and Michael Weinberg of the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) launched the Open Source Hardware Certification program. It’s live, and you can certify your own hardware as Open Hardware right now.
The relevant license for Open Source Hardware has already been laid out to define the freedoms and responsibilities of all Open Source Hardware creators. Open Source Hardware is a tangible thing, from a laptop to a lampshade, whose design is available so anyone can make, modify, distribute, and sell that thing. Native documentation is required, and software required to run this thing must be based on an OSI-approved license.
The definition of Open Source Hardware has been around for a few years now, and since then the community has flourished, there’s a great gear logo, and you can buy real, functional hardware that bills itself as Open Source Hardware. It’s become a selling point, and this has become a problem.
Many hardware creators don’t adhere to the definition of Open Source Hardware. In some cases, the design files simply aren’t available. If they are, they could be unmodifiable. The software used to create these design files could cost thousands of dollars per seat. This is the problem the movement faces — Open Source Hardware must have a certification program.
All software is closed by default. Anything written is covered by copyright, and the developers of open source software choose to license their works under an open source license. Open source software, then, is a copyright hack, enabled because all software is closed by default.
Hardware, on the other hand, is open by default. If you build a device to automatically inject epinephrine intramuscularly, you must go out of your way to patent your device. Only a patent will give you the ability to license your work
FPGA, the code that programs the FPGA is covered by copyright, but an arbitrary circuit that uses that FPGA isn’t. Any generic piece of Open Source Hardware could be covered under patents, trademarks, and a dozen licenses. Therefore, an Open Source Hardware license is impractical.
At last year’s Open Hardware Summit, OSHWA formally announced the creation of the Open Hardware Certification program.
create hardware that complies with the community definition of Open Source Hardware.
OSHWA’s solution to this problem is simply asking for hardware creators to act in good faith. The certification program won’t knock points off for using closed source binary blobs if that’s the only way of doing something.
Building a piece of Open Source Hardware isn’t an all or nothing proposal; just give your best effort to make it open, and technology or reverse engineers will probably make it more open in the future.
If an Open Hardware project is certified under the program but does not meet the guidelines of the certification program, fines may be levied against the project creators.
these fines have a legal basis in the trademark of the OSHW certification logo, and if you don’t use the OSHW logo or certify your project, there’s nothing OSHWA can do.
Open Source Hardware Certificate
http://certificate.oshwa.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
These 20 Projects Won $1000 For Assistive Technologies
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/10/these-20-projects-won-1000-for-assistive-technologies/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Collatz-O-Matic: a State Machine with Style!
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/10/the-collatz-o-matic-a-state-machine-with-style/
If you have ever thought that working out a Collatz sequence by hand was alright but lacked buttons and lights, the Collatz-o-matic by [mechatronicsguy] has you covered!
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Completely Open Microcontroller
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/10/the-journey-toward-a-completely-open-microcontroller/
We don’t know about you, but the idea of an Arduino-class microprocessor board which uses completely open silicon is a pretty attractive prospect to us. That’s exactly [onchipUIS]’s stated goal. They’re part of a research group at the Universidad Industrial de Santander and have designed and taped out a RISCV implementation with Cortex M0-like characteristics.
The RISCV project has developed an open ISA (instruction set architecture) for modern 32-bit CPUs. More than 40 research groups and companies have now jumped on the project and are putting implementations together
The board they’ve built breaks out all the chip’s peripherals, and is a convenient test setup to help them validate the platform.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Augmented Reality Historical Reenactments
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/10/hackaday-prize-entry-augmented-reality-historical-reenactments/
Go to a pier, boardwalk, the tip of Manhattan, or a battlefield, and you’ll see beautifully crafted coin operated binoculars. Drop a coin in, and you’ll see the Statue of Liberty, a container ship rolling coal, or a beautiful pasture that was once the site of terrific horrors. For just a quarter, these binoculars allow you to take in the sights, but simply by virtue of the location of where these machines are placed, you’re standing in the midsts of history. There’s so much more there. If only there was a way to experience that.
This is why [Ben Sax] is building the Perceptoscope. It’s a pair of augmented reality binoculars. Drop in a quarter, and you’ll be able to view the entirety of history for an area. Drop this in Battery Park, and you’ll be able to see the growth of Manhattan from New Amsterdam to the present day.
Perceptoscope
https://hackaday.io/project/10637-perceptoscope
A public viewing device for mixed reality experiences in the form factor of coin-operated binoculars.
Perceptoscopes add objects and information to a view of a space in stereoscopic 3D. They can reveal the hidden past, highlight present points of interest, or speculate into the future.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Components
1 × 3D Printed Optical Assembly
1 × Arduino Pro Mini mounted on Custom PCB
1 × Intel NUC
1 × Laser Cut Shell
1 × 8020 Frame
1 × Custom Welded Yoke
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blooming Flower Lamp Will Test Your 3D Printer
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/11/blooming-flower-lamp-will-test-your-3d-printer/
[ossum] has a baby on the way. He admits that he got a bit carried away, brimming with parental excitement. What resulted is a fully articulated LED WiFi lamp that blooms and glows dramatically in the friendly confines of the oncoming baby’s room.
Blooming Marvelous Flower Lamp
http://www.instructables.com/id/Blooming-Marvelous-Flower-Lamp/
I decided to make a 3D printed night-light for my soon-to-be-born baby girl’s room and, as is the norm with my projects, I got a bit carried away, so I present to you the fully-articulated, wifi-enabled, 3d-printed night-light (patent not pending).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Too Good To Throw Away: Dealing with an Out-Of-Control Junk Hoard
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/13/too-good-to-throw-away-dealing-with-an-out-of-control-junk-hoard/
My Guilty Secret
What follows will probably be a familiar tale to many readers, one of a huge collection of boxes bursting with Stuff That Might Be Useful Someday, or even Stuff That’s Just Too Good To Throw Away. It’s possible that there will be readers for whom this is not a problem, but I suspect I will not be alone in wrestling with it from time to time, so it’s worth examination. Why do we do it, and what strategies can be taken to mitigate it?
A few decades ago, ordering electronic components was a fairly slow and expensive process. There were a limited number of mail-order companies with large paper catalogues, and your order had to go through two postal delays as it made its way to the supplier and then as its parts made their way to you.
So back then there was something of a culture of hoarding electronic junk. Particularly if you were an impecunious teen. There was no online next-day-delivery, and even if there had been you probably wouldn’t have been able to afford it. People hung on to pieces of dead electronics as sources of parts and to swap for other parts.
If your course followed mine, you’ll know where this is going. After a few years of electronic endeavours I had a hoard approaching mini-dragonesque proportions
It’s important to understand that to successfully deal with something of this nature the person involved will have to themselves recognize that it has become a problem.
Value is pretty easy. Is it worth much?
More difficult was intangible value, did it remind me of something? A non-functional prototype amplifier board from my days in student radio for example
Surprisingly difficult were hoards of old components.
Usefulness was yet again straightforward. Tools, hang on to them. Motors, though, a different matter.
At the end of it all, after I had carted the piles of scrap, rubbish, and recycling to their respective destinations, I was left with a small selection of plastic tubs. Mains cables and extensions, data, signal, and network cables, electronic components, and tools. One set of shelves takes the lot, so I can put all the other non-electronic detritus of 21st century life on the rest of my shelves. Several years later I am now very wary of taking on any more junk, and if I don’t have an immediate need for whatever it is then it doesn’t come home with me. I buy components online as I need them, so I have little need to hold on to a stock. This is not to say I’m entirely cured
Tomi Engdahl says:
Homemade E-Drums Hit All The Right Notes
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/16/homemade-e-drums-hit-all-the-right-notes/
In our eyes, there isn’t a much higher calling for Arduinos than using them to make musical instruments. [victorh88] has elevated them to rock star status with his homemade electronic drum kit.
The kit uses an Arduino Mega because of the number of inputs [victorh88] included. It’s not quite Neil Peart-level, but it does have a kick drum, a pair of rack toms, a floor tom, a snare, a crash, a ride, and a hi-hat.
With the exception of the hi-hat, all the pieces in the kit use a piezo element to detect the hit and play the appropriate sample based on [Evan Kale]’s code, which was built to turn a Rock Band controller into a MIDI drum kit.
Homemade Electronic Drum kit with Arduino Mega2560
http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Electronic-Drum-Kit-With-Arduino-Mega2560/
- Sensors. Piezos and a photocell.
Forgotten Rock Band Drum Controller as a MIDI Instrument
https://hackaday.com/2015/07/18/forgotten-rock-band-drum-controller-as-a-midi-instrument/
https://github.com/evankale/ArduinoMidiDrums
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scissors Make Great Automatic Cable Cutters
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/19/scissors-make-great-automatic-cable-cutters/
The team at [2PrintBeta] required a bunch of cables, heat shrink, and braid to be cut for their customers. They looked into an industrial cable cutter, but decided the price was a little too high, so they decided to make their own. They had a bunch of ideas for cutting: Using a razor blade? Or a Dremel with a cutting wheel? What they came up with was a DIY cable cutter that uses a pair of scissors, a pair of stepper motors, a pair of 3D printed wheels and an Arduino.
Automatic cable cutter
http://ifeelbeta.de/index.php/art-objects/automatic-cable-cutter
Once in a while we need different lengths of braid, PTFE-tube or shrink tube for a customer. Since the demand grows steadily and manual cutting takes its time, we thought an automatic cable cutter would do it better than us.
But as always: An industrial cable cutter is not really cheap. So only one solution remained: Do it yourself.
The principle is quite simple: A motor driven cable feeder and at the end something which cuts the cables. Both can be driven with a stepper motor, so we could use a BAM&DICE board with two DICE STK stepper motor drivers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: 3D Prints For The Visually Impaired
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/19/hackaday-prize-entry-3d-prints-for-the-visually-impaired/
Students with visual impairments can have difficulty with visual and spatial relationships. 3D printers can print almost everything, and with a lot of CAD work, this project in the Hackaday Prize provides these students with physical objects to learn any subject.
3D Prints for Teachers of the Visually Impaired
https://hackaday.io/project/11312-3d-prints-for-teachers-of-the-visually-impaired
Visually impaired students can make great use of 3D prints to learn just about any subject, but their teachers need help making good models.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Animated Gif Camera, Brought To You By A Raspberry Pi
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/23/the-animated-gif-camera-brought-to-you-by-a-raspberry-pi/
No one watches video anymore. Cable cutters are digging into Verizon’s profits, and YouTube is a shadow of its 2005 self. What are people consuming now? Animated gifs. This is the bread and butter of the meme economy. Personally, all my investments are sunk deep into Gandolf / Balrog gifs, with each character replaced with Trump and Hillary. I expect a tidy profit on November 9th.
With animated gifs being the de facto method of sharing moving pictures, the world will belong to those who can create them. Phones are fine, but strangely video cameras, DSLRs, and other high-end photography equipment are the norm. This is idiotic, of course, because high-definition images are just a fad, and audio is useless
PIX-E Gif Camera
https://hackaday.io/project/16358-pix-e-gif-camera
A fully customizable 3D printed camera that takes short gifs using a Raspberry Pi Zero and Raspberry Pi Camera.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Animatronics
https://hackaday.io/project/16193-open-animatronics
A modular, parametric and extensible Animatronics cad generation framework
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Kevin Harrington
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Wearable animatronics and NodeMCU FW
Main Head generator
hardware
ongoing project
ESP2866
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This project was created on 10/10/2016 and last updated an hour ago.
Description
I have used BowerStudio to design a series of animatronic robot heads. The heads all have 2 forward facing eyes and one mouth, but besides that, most everything else is parametric. From doll head with micro servos up through huge wearable anamatronic heads! Long noses or short, Wide heads, 2 different sized eyes even!
in BowlerStudio, run:
https://gist.github.com/madhephaestus/e67b5f75f23c134af5d5054106e3ec40
For the maker, there is no specific servo, bolt or material thickness needed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ottawa Maker Faire: Droids And Pick And Place Machines
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/22/ottawa-maker-faire-droids-and-pick-and-place-machines/
Three things that I love about participating in Maker Faires are seeing all the awesome stuff people have done over the past year, spending time with all my maker friends in one big room over two days and the reactions to what I made. The 2016 Ottawa Maker Faire had all this in spades.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenFixture Takes the Pain Out of Pogo Pins
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/23/openfixture-takes-the-pain-out-of-pogo-pins/
[Elliot] (no relation, but hey, cool name!) wrote in with his OpenFixture model for OpenSCAD. It’s awesome because it takes a small problem, that nonetheless could consume an entire day, and solves it neatly. And that problem is making jigs to test assembled electrical products: a PCB test fixture.
In the PCB design software, you simply note down the locations of the test points and feed these into the OpenSCAD model.
http://tinylabs.io/openfixture-config/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: The Open Voice Factory
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/21/hackaday-prize-entry-the-open-voice-factory/
Suddenly, Richard was able to communicate using thousands of words, and everyone could understand him. In the UK, there are thousands of people who could benefit from this technology, but can’t afford one. This is the inspiration for the Open Voice Factory, a device that allows anyone to create pages of touch screen interfaces and parses them into functioning speech aids.
The basic idea behind the Open Voice Factory is — wait for it — PowerPoint. Hold on, this actually makes sense. The Open Voice Factory is designed so caregivers can create and modify the touchscreen ‘pages’ with different words and actions. PowerPoint is universal, and everybody’s grandmother knows how to use it.
The Open Voice Factory
Free speech, for people that need it most
https://hackaday.io/project/15567-the-open-voice-factory
The Open Voice Factory
Free speech, for everyone
http://www.theopenvoicefactory.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Bilateral Brain Stimulator
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/27/hackaday-prize-entry-bilateral-brain-stimulator/
In 1987, an American psychologist found voluntary eye movements reduced the intensity of negative thoughts. This is the basis of EMDR, or Eye Movement and Reprocessing Desensibilization, and if it sounds too oogie-boogie to be real, I assure you there are even oogier and boogier techniques in psychology that actually work.
[David]’s entry to the Hackaday Prize is a device that helps psychologists apply EMDR for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorders.
EBC Bilateral Brain Stimulator
https://hackaday.io/project/14615-ebc-bilateral-brain-stimulator
The EBC project aims to build a device that helps psychotherapists to apply EMDR treatment of post-traumatic stress disorders
Tomi Engdahl says:
Litter Basket Automation
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/30/litter-basket-automation/
Auto Trash by Arduino
http://www.instructables.com/id/Auto-Trash-by-Arduino/
Tomi Engdahl says:
BSD-based Secure Smartphone
https://hackaday.io/project/13145-bsd-based-secure-smartphone
The goal is to create a; fast, open, firewalled & encrypted BSD-based smartphone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Boxes.py
https://hackaday.io/project/10649-boxespy
Cut out boxes and other stuff with a laser cutter
Tomi Engdahl says:
LED Matrix Shades You Can Actually See Though
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/02/led-matrix-shades-you-can-actually-see-though/
[Gal Pavlin] admits to enjoying the occasional dance music show. For those who have never been to one, LED one-upmanship at these shows is a real and terrible thing, so much so that an entire market exists around it. To that end, [Gal] built a pretty spiffy set of LED glasses.
It took quite a bit of work to arrive at the final design. All the circuitry and LEDs fit entirely within the envelope of the lenses on a pair of sunglass frames of dubious parentage. The batteries squeeze in between the user’s head and temples.
LED shades
Light Emitting Dance shades – general purpose party accessory.
http://e.pavlin.si/2016/08/14/led-shades/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Easy Parabolic Mirror from a Trash Can Lid
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/01/easy-parabolic-mirror-from-a-trash-can-lid/
The idea is so simple that it´s almost like cheating. Cut a circle of mylar slightly larger than the lid, and tape it all around, taking care of stretching the mylar in the process. After you´re done with this, you end up with a nice flat mirror. Here´s where the vacuum is needed to force the film into parabolic shape.
Trash can lid to Parabolic Mirror DIY telescope mirror Signal booster Faster 3G/4G
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8sd9UgjXLE
Tomi Engdahl says:
Thank Goodness for Makers
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1330698&
Did you ever fear that hobby electronics was fading away, and were you surprised by the emergence of the Maker Movement?
When I was a young lad, I was always building electronic and mechanical “things” — some of them even worked. A lot of my friends were similarly inclined. Those were the days when it was cheaper to make something than to buy a finished product.Things changed over time. It became cheaper to buy something than to make it. Eventually, when something broke down, it’s owner simply threw it out and purchased a new one. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer people seemed to be interested in building things for the fun of it, and do-it-yourself hobbyist magazines went out of business around the globe.
Then, suddenly, in the early 2000s, the Maker Movement leapt onto the scene. I couldn’t have been more surprised and delighted. In the 1990s, if you had told me that there would soon be Maker Faires around the world — from North and South America to Europe to Asia to Australia — I would have laughed a hollow laugh and shaken my head in disbelief.
How things have changed, spurred on in large part by the Internet, which allows Makers to share their passions with others.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Final 10 Entries of the 2016 Hackaday Prize
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/03/the-final-10-entries-of-the-2016-hackaday-prize/
It has been quite a ride this year, watching entries pour in during the five challenges of the 2016 Hackaday Prize. Our yearly engineering initiative is designed to focus the skill, experience, and creativity of the world’s tinkerers, hackers, designers, and fabricators to build something that matters: things that change lives. The final ten entries, from more than 1,000, exemplify this mission.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Box0
Free and open source tool for exploring science and electronics anytime anywhere
https://hackaday.io/project/11074-box0
Box0
Started with the idea of providing learners educational resources and tools that gives the freedom to discover science, technology and electronics by doing and sharing knowledge with others.
As students, we wanted to have something that is affordable and help us learn not only in classrooms and restricted labs but anytime anywhere and can be used with a variety of open coursewares.
Box0 helps you learn about electronics and computers and how these are useful for studying physical, biological, chemical or some other phenomena.
Your lab in a Bag
Box0 give you the Freedom to learn anytime anywhere.
Learning can happen anywhere, be it classroom, labs or park.
Let your creativity and curiosity come outside.
Box0 Studio (Qt) – Common Instruments GUI
Oscilloscope
Function Generator
PWM Generator
Digital I/O
Voltmeter
Power Supply
All source code, hardware design are released under a Free/Open Source software, hardware licence.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Drum on a Chip–Not That Kind of Chip
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/03/drum-on-a-chip-not-that-kind-of-chip/
[Ian H] uses the short Pringles cans to build a drum kit. Clearly, the little cans aren’t going to make very much sound on their own, but with a piezo speaker element used in reverse, the cans become touch sensors that feed an Arduino and drive a MIDI device. You can see a video of the result, below.
Pringle Can MIDI Drums
http://www.instructables.com/id/Pringle-Can-MIDI-Drums/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dtto Explorer Modular Robot Wins 2016 Hackaday Prize
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/05/dtto-explorer-modular-robot-wins-2016-hackaday-prize/
Dtto, a modular robot designed with search and rescue in mind, has just been named the winner of the 2016 Hackaday Prize. In addition to the prestige of the award, Dtto will receive the grand prize of $150,000 and a residency at the Supplyframe Design Lab in Pasadena, CA.
This year’s Hackaday Prize saw over 1,000 entires during five challenge rounds which asked people to Build Something that Matters. Let’s take a look at the projects that won the top five prizes. They exemplify the five challenge themes: Assistive Technologies, Automation, Citizen Scientist, Anything Goes, and Design Your Concept. dtto-main-image-cropped
Dtto — Explorer Modular Robot
Grand Prize Winner ($150,000 and a residency at the Supplyframe Design Lab): Dtto is modular robot built with 3D printed parts, servo motors, magnets, and readily available electronics. Each module consists of two boxes, rounded on one side, connected by a bar. The modules can join with each other in many different orientations using the attraction of the magnets. Sections can separate themselves using servo motors.
Dtto is groundbreaking in its ability to make modular robots experimentation available to roboticists and hobbiests everywhere by sidestepping what has traditionally been a high-cost undertaking.
Second Place ($25,000): Reflectance Transformation Imaging is a method of photographing artifacts multiple times with a fixed camera location but changing lighting locations.
Third Place ($10,000): An optics bench is a series of jigs used to hold and precisely align elements for optical experiments. Traditionally this meant highly specialized equipment starting in the tens-of-thousands of dollars.
A New High Accuracy Tilt Sensor
Fourth Place ($10,000): This is a reimaging of a Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT).
Fifth Place ($5,000). Stepper motors are known for accurate movement, but they are often used as open loop systems and prone to lose track of position either from missed steps or outside interference. Mechaduino adds a high accuracy magnetic encoder
Dtto – Explorer Modular Robot
https://hackaday.io/project/9976-dtto-explorer-modular-robot
Modular self-reconfigurable robot, focused on all-terrain search and rescue operations using bio-inspired locomotion mechanisms
“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Become like water my friend.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Simple ECG Proves You Aren’t Heartless After All
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/07/simple-ecg-proves-you-arent-heartless-after-all/
We don’t think of the human body as a piece of electronics, but a surprising amount of our bodies work on electricity. The heart is certainly one of these. When you think about it, it is pretty amazing. A pump the size of your fist that has an expected service life of nearly 100 years.
All that electrical activity is something you can monitor and–if you know what to look for–irregular patterns can tell you if everything is OK in there. [Ohoilett] is a graduate student in the biomedical field and he shares some simple circuits for reading electrocardiogram (ECG) data.
Super Simple Electrocardiogram (ECG) Circuit
http://www.instructables.com/id/Super-Simple-Electrocardiogram-ECG-Circuit/
Electrocardiography is the study of the electrical signals produced by the heart during the cardiac cycle. Doctors monitor a person’s electrocardiogram (ECG) in order to assess how the heart is functioning and can be used to diagnose a variety of cardiac diseases. The ECG is thought to have first been discovered by Alexander Muirhead[1] and has become a hallmark in patient care. It turns out that an ECG is very easily obtained with a few common circuit components. I’ll show you how to build a “Super Simply Electrocardiogram (ECG) Circuit.”
“Be very careful, if you can sense millivolts from the heart, a problem with the circuit can send them to the heart which would not be good.”
Collect and analyze ECG data
https://hackaday.com/2009/08/22/collect-and-analyze-ecg-data/
An Open Hardware Platform for ECG, EEG and Other Measurements
https://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/an-open-hardware-platform-for-ecg-eeg-and-other-measurements/
[Eric] tipped us about the OpenHarwareExG project which goal is to build a device that allows the creation of electrophysiological signal processing applications. By the latter they mean electrocardiography (ECG, activity of the heart), electroencephalography (EEG, signals on the scalp), electromyography (EMG, skeletal muscles activity), electronystagmography and electrooculography (ENG & EOG, eye movements) monitoring projects. As you can guess these signals are particularly hard to measure due to their small amplitude and therefore susceptibility to electrical noise.
OpenHardwareExG
http://openelectronicslab.github.io/OpenHardwareExG/
https://github.com/openelectronicslab/OpenHardwareExG
The OpenHardwareExG is a platform for ECG, EEG, EMG, ENG, EOG, and evoked potential applications.
The OpenHardwareExG platform was originally developed as part of the eeg-mouse project.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny Game Boy (That Plays Witcher 3) and Other Things That Blew My Mind
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/07/tiny-game-boy-that-plays-witcher-3-and-other-things-that-blew-my-mind/
For years Spite_TM has be my favorite hacker, and yet he continues to have an uncanny ability to blow my mind with the hacks that he pulls off even thought I’m ready for it. This weekend at the Hackaday SuperConference he threw down an amazing talk on his tiny, scratch-built, full-operational Game Boy. He stole the badge hacking show with a Rick Roll, disassembled the crypto challenge in one hour by cutting right to the final answer, and managed to be everywhere at once. You’re a wizard Harry Sprite!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hollow State Receiver
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/07/hollow-state-receiver/
[Netzener] received a Radio Shack P-Box one tube receiver as a gift. However, at the time, his construction skills were not up to the task and he never completed the project. Years later, he did complete a version of it with a few modern parts substitutions. The radio worked, but he was disappointed in its performance. Turns out, the original Radio Shack kit didn’t work so well, either. So [Netzener] did a redesign using some some old books from the 1920’s. The resulting radio–using parts you can easily buy today–works much better than the original design.
One Tube AM Radio
http://www.instructables.com/id/One-Tube-AM-Radio/
Today there are still quite a few electronics kits available for education purposes, but rapidly evolving features and shrinking components ended the consumer electronics kit business. I would have loved to have assembled some of the products that were popular in the 70′s, but unfortunately most of the companies that made all those wonderful kits were gone when I began my career. In honor of a great set of educational Radio Shack electronics project kits available during the 60′s and 70′s, I’ve redesigned the original Science Fair brand One Tube AM Radio (Catalog #28-100) using modern components still available from electronics component re-sellers in the US. All of the components in the updated kit can be found on Amazon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NASA Puts its 3D Models Up on GitHub
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/08/nasa-puts-its-3d-models-up-on-github/
NASA has a bunch of its 3D models up on GitHub, and if you didn’t know about it before, you do now. It’s a ridiculously large download, at over one and a half jiggabytes, but it’s full of textures and high-resolution models of spacecraft, landing sites, and other random NASA ephemera.
there are STL files galore in the “3D Printing” folder. These include a printable Curiosity rover, the famous 3D-printed ratchet wrench, and more.
NASA-3D-Resources
https://github.com/nasa/NASA-3D-Resources
Tomi Engdahl says:
Simple Hearing Amplifier
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/08/simple-hearing-amplifier/
Hearing aids are probably more high-tech than you think. They are tiny. They have to go through a lot of trouble to prevent feedback. They need a long battery life.
[NotionSunday] put together a hearing amplifier project that probably doesn’t hit many of those design criteria. However, thanks to a 3D printed case, it looks pretty good. The device uses a dual opamp to boost the output from two microphones and feeds it to a conventional headphone.
Technically, devices like this are not really hearing aids, they are “personal sound amplifiers” and the FDA warns people not to substitute them for hearing aids.
DIY Low Cost Stereo Hearing Aid | Hearing Amplifier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAZbHFOIRfg
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Pipe Organ For The MIDI Generation
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/09/a-pipe-organ-for-the-midi-generation/
If you are a musician and you are also a Hackaday reader, there’s a good chance you’ll own at least one MIDI instrument. A synthesizer of some description, maybe a keyboard, or perhaps a drum machine. A pipe organ? Probably not.
If you answer to the name of [Wendell Kapustiak] though, you’d say yes to that question. He’s built himself a beautiful pipe organ from scratch, with hand-tuned wooden pipes, and for a modern touch he’s made it MIDI controlled. An Arduino Due sends its commands to a set of solenoid drivers, the solenoids then control the air flow from his wind chest through a set of plastic tubes to his organ pipes.
Music & Me Part 4 — Version 1.0 is complete
http://wakrec.blogspot.fi/2016/04/music-me-part-4-version-10-is-complete.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Visual Guide to the Best Hacker T-Shirts
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/09/visual-guide-to-the-best-hacker-t-shirts/
Head out in the normal “civilian” world and look at the shirts around you. I don’t want to be too nasty about about it, but let’s face facts — the T-shirts you see will be boring and uninventive. Now compare that to your favorite hacker cons. We wear our shirts like they’re oil paintings.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Print Directly On Fabric With an Inkjet Printer
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/09/print-directly-on-fabric-with-an-inkjet-printer/
[fungus amungus] was reading online about printing directly on fabrics with a home printer. He’d read a few hopeful tutorials about printing on them with a laser printer, but he didn’t own one.
Considering that you can occasionally buy an inkjet for less than the ink, he decided to take the plunge and see if he could print on a swatch of fabric with his inkjet. The technique requires a printer, some wax paper, scissors, and an iron.
Inkjet Printing on Fabric
http://www.instructables.com/id/Inkjet-Printing-on-Fabric/
Forget about printing on some transfer paper and then ironing it onto some fabric. With some freezer paper you can print right on the fabric itself. No need to reverse the image and it’s faster, cheaper, and more effective.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY KVM Switch Lets You Use One Keyboard and Mouse With Multiple Computers
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/12/diy-kvm-switch-lets-you-use-one-keyboard-and-mouse-with-multiple-computers/
Here’s a quick DIY hack if you happen to have multiple computers at home or at the office and are tired of juggling mice and keyboards. [Kedar Nimbalkar] — striving for a solution — put together a keyboard, video and mouse switcher that allows one set to control two computers.
A DPDT switch is connected to a female USB port, and two male USB cables — with the ground and 5V wires twisted together and connected to the switch — each running to a PC. [Nimbalkar] suggests ensuring that the data lines are correctly wired, and testing that the 5V and ground are connected properly. He then covered the connections with some hot glue to make it a little more robust
DIY KVM USB Sharing Switch – Control Multiple Computers From One Set of USB Keyboard/Mouse !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sll3dYmzRqY
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Not To Build A CPU Hand Warmer
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/12/how-not-to-build-a-cpu-hand-warmer/
Winter is coming, along with mittens, cold hands, snow, and jackets. Now that we’re all carrying around lithium batteries in our pocket, wouldn’t it be a great idea to build an electronic hand warmer? That’s what [GreatScott!] thought. To build his electronic hand warmer, he turned to the most effective and efficient way to turn electricity into heat: a ten-year-old AMD CPU.
Building an electronic hand warmer is exceptionally simple. All you need is a resistive heating element (like a resistor), a means to limit current (like a resistor), and a power supply (like a USB power bank). Connect these things together and you have a hand warmer that is either zero percent or one hundred percent efficient. We haven’t figured that last part out yet.
Stay warm this winter: CPU Hand Warmer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw2p-Dmn48U
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Portable, Accurate, Low-Cost, Open Source Air Particle Counter
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/13/a-portable-accurate-low-cost-open-source-air-particle-counter/
If you live in a city with poor air quality you may be aware that particulates are one of the chief contributors to the problem. Tiny particles of soot from combustion, less than 10μm across, hence commonly referred to as PM10. These are hazardous because they can accumulate deep in the lungs, wherein all kinds of nasties can be caused.
There are commercial sensors available to detect and quantify these particles, but they are neither inexpensive nor open source. [Rundong] tells us about a project that aims to change that situation, the MyPart, which is described as a portable, accurate, low-cost, open source air particle counter. There is a GitHub repository for the project as well as a series of Instructables covering the build in detail. It comes from a team of members of the Hybrid Ecologies Lab at UC Berkeley, USA.
Along the way, they provide a fascinating description of how a particulate sensor works. A laser shines at right angles across a photodiode, and is brought to a focal point above it. Any particulates in the air will scatter light in the direction of the photodiode, which can thus detect them.
How to Build a Portable, Accurate, Low Cost, Open Source Air Particle Counter
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Build-a-Portable-Accurate-Low-Cost-Open-Sou/
design files for low cost particle counter
https://github.com/rutian/MyPart/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printable Raman Field Use Spectrometer
Professional Grade Raman performing Spectrometer designed for Lab or field use.
https://hackaday.io/project/18126-3d-printable-raman-field-use-spectrometer
The DAV5 V3 Spectrometer will be the only project build here on Hackaday in its category, with ongoing, full performance and specifications documentation, this project will also be at least 95% 3D printed! The main goal for this project has 4 points:
1) To build a rugged and reliable low cost spectrometer with 3D printable parts.
2) A spectrometer capable of producing consistent and professional quality results in the field, home or Lab
3) A device with upgradeable capabilities
4) Every part of this project will have it’s .STL file (for 3D-printing,) available for download.
This is phase one. ( Design and proof of concept.)
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM is Bringing AI to the Maker Movement
http://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/ibm-bringing-ai-maker-movement/41462170045587?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20161116.tst004c
IBM has announced a new experimental platform, Project Intu, that aims to bring the various machine learning capabilities of its Watson artificial intelligence (AI) system to developers at all levels — even ones that use a Raspberry Pi.
The goal of Project Intu is to make it easier for developers to implement cognitive computing functions (also called “embedded cognition) into their devices, whether it be an IoT device, robot, or other system, to create more natural user interactions via functions. In short, developers will be able to leverage Watson to more easily add functionalities like conversation, speech-to-text, and voice, language, and visual recognition to devices.
Project Intu offers developers a ready-made environment on which to build cognitive experiences running on a wide variety of operating systems – from Raspberry PI to MacOS, Windows to Linux machines, to name a few.”
IBM’s Watson, which rose to fame back in 2011 when it became a Jeopardy champion, has already been leveraged over the years for a number of more ambitious tasks, particularly in factory automation and healthcare.
Project Intu marks the first occasion of Watson being offered in a way that smaller developers as well as homebrew and DIY enthusiasts can access its capabilities. IBM has previously allowed the Raspberry Pi to connect to to Watson’s cloud-based service for purposes of data visualizations , but this latest announcement opens up a much larger sandbox for developers at all levels.
In conjunction with this, IBM has also announced a deal with Topcoder, an online software development community to host hackathons and coding competitions wherein developers will be challenged to create AI apps, APIs, and other solutions using Watson.
partnership expands the Watson Developer Community and Watson’s capabilities to the more than 1 million Topcoder contributors
IBM’s new push for AI is coming at a time when analysts are predicting heavy growth opportunity in the coming years. In a recent report on IT Industry Predictions for 2017 , IDC estimated by 2018 75% of developer teams will be using AI functionality in one or more of their applications and services — a 50% increase from IDC’s predictions from last year.
Project Intu
http://www.ibm.com/watson/developercloud/project-intu.html
Embed cognitive functions in various form factors such as spaces, avatars or other IoT devices.
Project Intu is an experimental service that allows developers to quickly and seamlessly integrate various cognitive services, such as Conversation and Speech-to-Text, with the capabilities of various devices, spaces and physical objects. Project Intu allows the device to act out the interaction with the user. Instead of needing to program each individual movement of a device or avatar, Project Intu makes it easy to combine movements that are appropriate for performing specific tasks like assisting a customer in a retail setting or greeting a visitor in a hotel in a way that is natural for the end user.
Intu Gateway
https://rg-gateway.mybluemix.net/
Intu Gateway for configuring and managing Watson Intu instances.
Project Intu
https://github.com/watson-intu/
Project Intu is the new platform for embodied cognition: bringing the cognitive mind – with context and reasoning – a body through which it can express itself.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Microfluidics Instrumentation Playset
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/17/open-microfluidics-instrumentation-playset/
Micro-what? Microfluidics! It’s the field of dealing with tiny, tiny bits of fluids, and there are some very interesting applications in engineering, biology, and chemistry. [Martin Fischlechner], [Jonathan West], and [Klaus-Peter Zauner] are academic scientists who were working on microfluidics and made their own apparatus, initially because money was tight. Now they’ve stuck to the DIY approach because they can get custom machinery that simply doesn’t exist.
In addition to their collaboration, and to spread the ideas to other labs, they formed DropletKitchen to help advance the state of the art. And you, budding DIY biohacker, can reap the rewards.
Welcome to the DropletKitchen
Open Instrumentation and Howtos for Microfluidics
Flexible and affordable droplet microfluidics with digital fabrication, open hardware and open source software.
https://dropletkitchen.github.io/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Enlightened Raspberry Pi Contest Winners
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/17/enlightened-raspberry-pi-contest-winners/
The Enlightened Raspberry Pi Contest wrapped up last week. As soon as the contest closed, Hackaday’s crack team of judges jumped on the case. Every entrant was carefully reviewed. This was no easy feat! The field of 168 projects included both new concepts and old favorites. All of them were designed, built and documented with care. After all the votes were counted, 8 finalists rose to the top and were sent to [Matt Richadrson], [Ken Shirriff], and [Alvaro Prieto], our VIP judges, for the final ranking.
Enlightened Raspberry Pi Contest
Build and Document Awesome Raspberry Pi Projects, Win Fabulous Prizes
https://hackaday.io/contest/15532-enlightened-raspberry-pi-contest
Tomi Engdahl says:
A DIY Vacuum Pickup Tool for $75
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/17/a-diy-vacuum-pickup-tool-for-75/
If you’re assembling prototypes of SMD boards on your own, placing the parts accurately can be a pain. Of course, it’d be nice to have a full pick and place machine, but those are rather expensive and time consuming to set up, especially for a small run of boards. Instead, a vacuum pickup tool can help you place the parts quickly and accurately by hand.
The folks over at Ohmnilabs have put together their own DIY pickup tool for about $75, and it’s become part of their in-house prototyping process.
DIY Vacuum Pickup Tool for SMT Pick and Place
http://blog.ohmnilabs.com/diy-vacuum-pickup-smt-pick-and-place
We get a lot of people asking us about our in-house prototyping and manufacturing processes. We love sharing what we’ve learned in the trenches!
Today’s topic is how to take a bunch of Amazon parts and make a low cost (< $75) adjustable DIY vacuum pickup tool (with a foot pedal) for doing manual pick and place.
Why is this useful? It helps you prototype boards faster and with less effort! In our tests we were between 60-90% faster with the vacuum pickup than with tweezers.
Robotics groups, hobbyists, and makers who are making circuitry of any kind should absolutely learn to do surface mount reflow. For around $100 you can have a pretty good setup and crank out boards quickly. If you're still hand soldering, don't be afraid to try it out!
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Laser Effect Projector Built with Safety in Mind
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/17/a-laser-effect-projector-built-with-safety-in-mind/
There’s just something about wielding a laser pointer on a dark, foggy night. Watching the beam cut through the mist is fun – makes you feel a little Jedi-esque. If you can’t get enough of lasers and mist, you might want to check out this DIY “laser sky” effect projector.
“Laser Sky” Special Effect – Arduino, Ultimaker Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYmv8dOtOBA
A spinning mirror and a laser can be used to illuminate cross sections of smoke or fog. Idea originally picked up from reading the awesome conversations at laserpointerforums.com
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bullet Movies
Using red, green, and blue LEDs to capture short movies of very fast objects
https://hackaday.io/project/18138-bullet-movies
“Still” bullet photography has traditionally been done with an open camera shutter and fast gas-discharge flash lamps. Recently, LEDs have become bright enough to perform the same function. I’m taking this one step further and using red, green, and blue LEDs to capture three instants in time in a single camera image, which can be reconstructed into three separate frames with a little linear algebra. Although RGB exposures like this were done (on film, with flashlamps and colored filters) in the 1960s, modern technology brings this within reach of the average hacker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ruggedizing A Cheap Camera For Spacecraft Testing
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/19/ruggedizing-a-cheap-camera-for-spacecraft-testing/
Copenhagen Suborbitals. As the tagline on their website has it: “We’re 50 geeks building and flying our own rockets. One of us will fly into space“
For their rocket testing they need a lot of video feeds, and for that they use cheap Chinese GoPro clones. The problem with these (and we suspect many other cameras) is that when subjected to the temperature and vibration of being strapped to a rocket, they cease to work. And since even nonprofit spaceflight engineers are experts at solving problems, they’ve ruggedized the cameras to protect them from vibration and provide adequate heatsinking.
The heat issue is addressed by removing the camera case and attaching its metal chassis directly to a heatsink that forms the end of an extruded aluminium case. Vibration was causing the camera SD cards to come loose, so these are soldered into their sockets. Power is provided by a pair of 18650 cells with a switching regulator to provide internal power
Junque in armor
https://copenhagensuborbitals.com/junque-in-armor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Need an enclosure? Try Scrap Wood with Toner Transfer Labels
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/18/need-an-enclosure-try-scrap-wood-with-toner-transfer-labels/
This utilitarian-looking device takes an unusual approach to a problem that many projects face: enclosures. [Jan Mrázek] created a device he calls the Morse Thing for a special night’s event and used what appears to be a humble two-by-four plank for the enclosure. The device is a simple puzzle using Morse code and was intended to be mounted to a railing, so [Jan] milled out the necessary spaces and holes for the LCD and buttons then applied labels directly to the wood via toner transfer – a method commonly used for making PCBs but also useful to create clean, sharp labels.
Morse Thing
http://blog.honzamrazek.cz/2016/09/morse-thing/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Partsbox.io Wants to Organize Your Junk Box
http://hackaday.com/2016/11/18/partsbox-io-wants-to-organize-your-junk-box/
The idea is simple: an online place to keep an inventory of your electronic parts. The implementation is not as simple, though. The web application will work on a mobile device or just about anywhere. You can view your components by type, by location (the shoe box under the bed vs the parts bin in the closet), or by a project’s bill of materials.
The other objection is that you can use a spreadsheet for the same purpose. You could even use Google Sheets if you wanted it on the cloud for some reason. That’s true, but you won’t get the same level of functionality.
The bill of materials (BOM) is especially interesting since you can answer the question: do I have enough parts on hand to build this? You can also remove all the parts for a project from inventory in one operation.
https://partsbox.io/